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No, I’m not trying to do a take on that awful Britney Spears song. But I did, well, do it again.

What was it?

Well, years and years of cartooning will amount to a mass collection of thoughts, ideas, sketches, etc. Normally though, even with the thousands and thousands of piles worth of content, I can sort out in my brain what I’ve done. Typically, I can recall if a certain idea or comic was done before by myself. And that’s a good thing! It keeps me coming up with fresh (hopefully fresh) ideas regularly.

However, sometimes something will slip through the cracks.

The other day I was sketching out ideas. I came up with some goodies.

One of them featured a couple of bears. I thought it would be funny to see a bunch of torn pillows, stuffing and everything around the male bear and have the female saying, “You were mauling in your sleep again.”

Good? Do you like?

Okay, well whether you think it’s funny or not, I did.

So, after an idea of mine gets approved by myself, I take it onto the drawing board and sketch the sucker out. Then ink it it.

Here are the results of that particular comic:

Above: My comic on my dirty drawing table.

After inking, I then scan and color in Photoshop.

BUT WAIT!

It hit me after completing this. Some thoughts arrived. Some like, didn’t I use this premise already?

I kept thinking and thinking. I KNEW I saw this before. And then I started thinking maybe it was someone else who came up with it or something. Paranoia hit. Yikes!

So, I started to dig through some of my old stuff (comics). The chances of me finding what I was looking for was like searching for a needle in a haystack. (Sorry for the unoriginal take on what it was like.)

But, lo and behold. I was right. I ran across something.

And here it is:

The above cartoon of mine I did a few years ago. SO I WAS RIGHT! I DID use this same premise/idea before!

Ugh. So you know what that means….

I scrap my newly completed comic with the bears. Sorry, bears.

But, that’s cartooning in a nutshell. You win some and you lose some.

I’m glad I caught my, um, mistake though. I don’t like putting out content that has been done before….Especially from me!

There you go. It’s bound to happen again. Luckily though, my editor caught this one before it left the gate and went out in public to join the others.

Just tweak the bear gagline so it’s different than the elephant. “Wake up Harold, you were sleep- mauling.” And if the elephant cartoon wan’t published somewhere, why worry? After all, Virgil Partch used “I hate Mondays!” continually to his continuing success.

This is how a series or “running” gag begins. Yes, they are similar in idea and punch line, but both work on their own. See if you can create several versions of the same gag and use them only once in a great while. See if any readers catch on and if they do respond with a congratulatory letter explaining the background.
Use this as an opportunity.

After the feedback, I might do that. My wife loves the bears version even better, so I might give it a shot. It’s something I’ve always avoided, but I’m all for testing the waters. So maybe I’ll launch it and check out the results. Could be fun!

Nate, read this post earlier but came back to it. As a syndicated cartoonist, I realize you have a fairly wide audience–between papers and the internet–who are visiting your stage at roughly the same time. But how is what you do any different from a stand-up comedian telling the same joke over time at different venues or recycling somebody else’s joke, perhaps with a slight tweak to modernize it or make it more topical?

So an elephant did something in its sleep and a bear did something in its sleep, but each performed a different action. I think the subjects and the twist are sufficiently different that one can’t really accuse you of repetition, And I do like the suggestion Larry provided about coming up with variations that you can trot out periodically.

That analogy is a good one (stand-up comedian/cartoonist). It’s funny though – I’ve seen cartoonist get called out SO many times for material – but you’re right – a comedian uses the same stuff every night. And they don’t get called out for it (at least as far as I know).

I’ve always compared my work ethic of that as an actor in terms of what I do. Actors take different roles and I do the same. I’ll work on a book with a premise that I could care less about, but think it’ll sale. Or, I might do an ad for a company that has a style I’m not use to. Different roles. At any rate though, in those roles, I try to keep them fresh and new. So, with Break of Day (my syndicated work) having similar topics that I’ve done before I try to avoid. BUT, after reading the comments and more, I’m starting to think there is a bigger separation of the two cartoons than I initially thought before writing this.

Muppets…I used to love that movie! Haven’t seen the first one in awhile, so I’ll have to check it out again. And yes, I think running gags are okay. I’m always curious to the percentage of the audience though that likes them. But, you’re right, I’m guessing true fans would enjoy (and that’s what I’m after).